Baseball Forms Committee to Pick Next Commissioner

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is retiring in January, which means baseball needs a new chief. A succession committee was picked during the quarterly Owners Meetings on Thursday. According to MLB.com,

The committee will be chaired by Cardinals chairman and chief executive officer Bill DeWitt Jr. and will include six other owners: Dick Montfort of the Rockies, Dave Montgomery of the Phillies, Arte Moreno of the Angels, Bob Nutting of the Pirates, Jim Pohlad of the Twins and Jerry Reinsdorf of the White Sox.

The committee will report to MLB’s executive council, which will ultimately present a candidate or candidates to be voted on by the full ownership of MLB’s 30 clubs. A candidate needs to receive 24 of the 30 votes to be elected Commissioner.

DeWitt told the press the committee met, but did not discuss any potential candidates. He said the men want to be “respectful of the Commissioner’s term, [which] ends on January 24, 2015.” He did say candidates will be considered in and out of baseball.

Selig did not comment when the press asked if he was considering staying past his contract or if he will remain in baseball. “I don’t really want to comment on that,” the commissioner explained. “The owners have been great. I’ve had lots of conversations with owners about this in the last few months. The only thing I can say is that I’ve determined in life that there’s a time to come and a time to go. And I have determined it’s time to go. There’s no sense in playing any games.”

The 79-year-old Selig, the former owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, has been in charge since 1992 when baseball named him interim commissioner. The board named him full-time commissioner in 1998. Baseball has pulled past commissioners from the federal bench, the military, business, and academia.